Dagang Net Eyes Extension of Concession

Published by The Malay Mail

DAGANG Net Technolo­gies Sdn Bhd has applied for an extension of its 15-year conces­sion to operate the national clearing centre for electronic data interchange, a senior company executive said yesterday.

"We have submitted our application to the Ministry of Interna­tional Trade and Industry. It is expected to respond to our request soon," the exec­utive told Mail Money.

Dagang Net's con­cession allows it to run an exclusive electronic linkage to the Malay­sian Customs on mat­ters involving import and export declaration and clearance.

The 15-year conces­sion expires on Sept 24 this year.

While Dagang Net declined to comment on its chances of extending its exclusive concession, the compa­ny has a strong chance of seeing the contract extended because of the huge sums of money it had invested to upgrade the infrastructure.

Recently it had given out a RM300,000 con­tract to a consulting firm to -help develop and execute a RM20 million three-year tech­nology upgrade plan.

Much of the money will go towards acquir­ing new software, hard­ware and for the setting up of a disaster recov­ery centre, but there will also be a sizeable allocation for training.

Dagang Net's elec­tronic clearing sys­tems enable ports to benefit from the faster turnaround time, lower document error rate, reduced document processing time which translates into significant cost savings for the ports. - By MALCOLM ROSARIO